An Unexpected School Break and More Validation

We had a death in the family and so we have to pause school for seven days. I sent him off with his journal and a new Magic Tree House book, so hopefully he will at least get that done. I’m starting to think we are going to have a very, very short Summer break.

It is really nice that we can just take this break and know that Caleb won’t miss out on anything like he would in public school. In public school, life goes on without him. In homeschool, there is no life without him.

Tuesday was our last day. The Reading lesson included some quotes. I asked him if he knew what “those little marks” mean. He said “No.” He guessed that they were called exclamation marks.

Oh my.

So, I talked just a little about the quotation marks to introduce the idea. He didn’t seem to grasp the concept very well so I didn’t push it too much.

Then later that night, I was looking through the books he brought home from public school. I found this…

I told him I was a little confused about how he had correctly written in the quotation marks here but then couldn’t explain them to me. And here is what he said:

“Well, when we do our work, sometimes I don’t know the answer. Then Mrs. H tells us to correct it and she tells us the answer and then I write it down.”

Now, I’m not knocking the school for this. Obviously, they don’t have the means to be more diligent about making sure that every student is paying attention and getting the lesson. But, this just struck me as so sad. And then relieved.

Sad that Caleb was behind and we had no clue, and relieved that I am now getting a clue. He needs this. And so do I.